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Completed: Riding Coat

This is that shiny new project that I was terribly distracted by and the reason I didn’t finish my 12 in 12 sock challenge on time. I chose to set the last sock aside because for some unknown reason when I accidentally cruised down the yarn aisle at Michael’s a few weeks ago and saw this Lion Brand Wool-Ease yarn in Oatmeal on sale I HAD to have it. I bought 5 skeins and went home to find a pattern for it. I came up with the Debbie Bliss Riding Coat pattern which sent me back to the store for 6 more skeins.

Between the super bulky yarn and the fact that it’s all garter stitch this coat came together very quickly. It took me 20 days start to finish and many of those days I didn’t even knit!

I followed all directions in the pattern and only made a slight change to shorten the distance between the waist and armhole shaping because I’m short-waisted.

Unfortunately I should have also adjusted the sleeves:

Too long! Boo! Too wide! Double boo! I cuffed them up several inches and even took a few tack stitches to keep them that way. They’re still too long but deeper cuffs looked silly. Oh well.

After it was all seamed together I thought the back looked a little plain. It was a sea of oatmeal yarn. I took care of that by adding a little faux belt. In case you want to add your own you can get the details for how I made the belt on my Ravelry page.

I finished it off with buttons from my vintage button stash. I picked out three big ones for the front and two smaller ones for the back belt. The back belt buttons are just stitched straight through the belt. No buttonholes. After I started stitching the big ones on the front I realized that one of them didn’t actually match! HAHA! I can’t believe I didn’t notice that it wasn’t the exact same button as the other two but I just went with it because I figured if I couldn’t tell while I was LOOKING for matching buttons, then no one would ever be able to spot it! After wearing the coat for real a few times I think I may have to swap out the buttons anyway. They seem to be a little too small and my coat doesn’t always want to stay buttoned.

Other notable items:

I stitched down the lapels because they wanted to flip closed all the time.

I hate that it doesn’t have pockets. Every time I put it on, I go to jam my hands in my pockets and I’m sorely disappointed. I’m terribly tempted to rip out the side seams and add some in-seam pockets with a lining fabric.

The pattern calls for size 11 needles but I had to go all the way down to size 8 to get the gauge. It wasn’t until I started knitting this up that I realized that my yarn was really so much HEAVIER. I knew it was a little bit heavier because of the gauge difference but I noticed that the recommended yarn is 110 yards per ball at a weight of 3.5 ounces while my yarn was 106 yards weighing in at a hefty 6 ounces! Yikes! I’ve made a major mental note for future yarn buying that just because two yarns are in the same “weight class” doesn’t mean they “weigh the same.”

The result was a very tight knit and extremely heavy coat. I don’t dare hang this on a hanger because the weight of it will surely distort the whole thing. I keep it folded on a bench in my foyer instead. On the bright side, it’s fantastic against the wind and fabulously warm. I just need a nice scarf to cover up that open area between the lapels. Guess I need to go knit one!